Running a business and raising a family has literally left me zero time to attend to myself, let alone any house projects.
Things are letting up a little bit which allowed me to give this wall a little makeover (plus 6 more all going at the same time).

You may remember this wall looked like this last week…

When we moved in 10 years ago we had these shelves added but that’s about it. In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if that white on the wall was actually just primer. I’ve alwasy dreamed of adding shiplap or tongue and groove. The problem is the shelves are so shallow that adding anything architectural to the wall would cut in the depth of the shelves which I didn’t want to do. I kept saying I’d get to it but one year turned in to several and I never did much with this little corner of the house. The other thing I knew is that I wanted something more moody. I will always love white but it’s overdone in my house and this room needed some contrast. I toyed with the idea of doing a faux shiplap.

I pulled several photos like this one of dark shiplap walls and noticed the thing they all had in common which defined the shiplap boards was a dark, almost black line. So I decided to give it a try. I first painted the wall a charcoal, almost black color in an eggshell sheen. The exact shade is “Black Chiffon” by Clark + Kensington. I then asked the paint mixer man to mix up the blackest shade he had in flat finish. The sheen is really important. In fact I almost think you could get away with using the same exact paint color just different sheen for the line separating the “planks”. It gives it some serious contract because the light bounces off it differently.

Using a level I first started by drawing lines with a white pencil on the wall in 7 inch planks.
Next, I used Frog Tape to take just a few centimeters above and below my white line. Approx the thickness of two nickels put together.

I then painted right in-between the lines to form my between plank shiplap line. Tip. I swear by the paint blog technology of Frog Tape but if you are worried at all about the paint bleeding under the tape or you have highly textured walls you can first paint with the same shade that is currently on the wall, let it dry, then paint your contrasting color.

Perfectly crisp lines.

I’ll admit that my amateur camera didn’t pick up just how real the faux shiplap looks but trust me, it fools everyone.